OCEANSIDE OFFICIALS EXPLAIN $100K STAFF TRIP

Oceanside 
Back from Washington’s Gaylord National Resort, Oceanside schools officials this week explained why they spent more than $100,000 to take 61 administrators and teachers to a four-day conference last week.

Oceanside Superintendent Larry Perondi said that the district had a surplus of federal Title 1 funds for low-income schools that had to be used by June 30 or the money would return to the federal government.

“It was the first year that we didn’t have to lay off staff, and we had a chance to build back up our staff development resources,” Perondi said.

Perondi said district officials believed the best way to use the funds would be to have teachers learn best practices and innovative ways of implementing the state’s imminent shift to “Common Core” standards. The new academic requirements and accompanying tests have been adopted by 45 of 50 states, pushing critical thinking skills over rote memorization.

“We are trying to get ahead of the curve as best we can,” Perondi said. “The premise (for using the funds) was that the best thing we could do for our students is to provide deeper instruction for teachers so they in turn can be more effective teachers.”

Some parents and others have called the spending excessive, saying the same results could be achieved by sending fewer delegates or attending a local conference.

Perondi said the Model Schools Conference by the International Center for Leadership in Education was where officials believed they would get the best information from numerous districts across the country.

“We felt it had the most powerful information because of the diversity of districts present,” Perondi said. “As a district, you have to weigh many difficult financial choices, but this was about putting the best quality information in front of our teacher leaders.”